Which tennis player won the first Olympic men's singles gold medal in 1896?

The tennis player who won the first Olympic men’s singles gold medal in 1896 was John Pius Boland.

Boland, representing Great Britain, won the event at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens. He defeated Greece’s Dionysios Kasdaglis in the final, 6–3, 6–1, at the Athens Lawn Tennis Club. The tournament began with 13 competitors from six nations and was played as a single-elimination competition.

Boland also won the men’s doubles title with Germany’s Friedrich Traun. Their partnership was unusual because the pair had not originally entered together: they met during the Games and formed a team after both had been eliminated from the singles competition. This made Boland the first athlete to win two Olympic tennis events.

The 1896 tournament did not use the modern medal ceremony or bronze-medal match. Both semifinal losers are recorded as bronze medalists retrospectively. Tennis later disappeared from the Olympic programme after 1924, returned as a demonstration sport in 1968 and 1984, and became a full medal sport again in 1988.